Police: Serbia school shooter had list of students to target
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Serbia School Shooting
People wait in front of the Vladislav Ribnikar school after shooting in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire early Wednesday in a school in central Belgrade, causing injuries. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
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Serbia School Shooting
Children wait in front of the Vladislav Ribnikar school after shooting in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire early Wednesday in a school in central Belgrade, causing injuries. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
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Serbia School Shooting
A suspect is escorted by police outside the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Serbian police say a teenage boy opened fire at a school in central Belgrade, killing several people and injuring several more. (AP Photo)
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Serbia School Shooting
A man cries at the entrance of a hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Serbian police say a teenage boy opened fire at a school in central Belgrade, killing several children and hospitalizing several more. (AP Photo/Milos Miskov)
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Serbia School Shooting
General view of a hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Serbian police say a teenage boy opened fire at a school in central Belgrade, killing several children and hospitalizing several more.(AP Photo/Milos Miskov)
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Serbia School Shooting
Dr. Milika Asanin, head of Serbia Clinical Centre hospital talks to media in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Serbian police say a teenage boy opened fire at a school in central Belgrade, killing several children and hospitalizing several more. (AP Photo/Milos Miskov)
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Serbia School Shooting
Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire early Wednesday in a school in central Belgrade, causing injuries. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
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Serbia School Shooting
Women look a the screen of a mobile phone in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Serbian police say a teenage boy opened fire at a school in central Belgrade, killing several children and hospitalizing several more. (AP Photo/Milos Miskov)
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JOVANA GEC and DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Wed, May 3, 2023 at 2:40 AM CDT
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) â A teenager who opened fire Wednesday at his school drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of people he intended to target, police said. He killed eight fellow students and a school guard before being arrested.
A father of a student at the school in central Belgrade said the shooter entered his daughterâs classroom, firing at her teacher and then her classmates as they ducked under their desks. Most students were able to flee through a back door, according to a local official.
Senior police official Veselin Milic said the shooter drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of children he planned to âliquidate" in an attack he planned for a month.
Milic said Kosta Kecmanovic called police himself when the attack was over.
Earlier, police said Kecmanovic was a student at the Vladislav Ribnikar school and was born in 2009. They said he used his fatherâs gun.
Six more children and a teacher were also hospitalized in the attack.
Local media footage showed a commotion as police removed Kecmanovic, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car. Police sealed off the blocks around Vladislav Ribnikar, which is whatâs known as a primary school, whose students would typically range in age from 6 to 15. Authorities later carried body bags to a waiting van.
Mass shootings are extremely rare in Serbia and in the wider Balkan region; none were reported at schools in recent years. In the last mass shooting, a Balkan war veteran in 2013 killed 13 people in a central Serbian village.
Experts, however, have repeatedly warned of the danger posed by the large number of weapons in the country after the wars of the 1990s. They also note that decades of instability stemming from the conflicts as well as the ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.
Police said they received a call about the shooting at around 8:40 a.m. on the first day that classes resumed after a long weekend for the May 1 holiday.
âI was able to hear the shooting. It was nonstop,â said a student who was in a sports class when gunfire erupted elsewhere in the building. Her mother asked that her name be withheld because of her age. âI didnât know what was happening. We were receiving some messages on the phone.â
The student described the suspect as a âquiet guyâ who had good grades.
âHe was not so open with everybody. Surely I wasnât expecting this to happen,â she said.
Milan Nedeljkovic, the mayor of the Belgrade area of Vracar where the shooting happened, said that most of the students were taken out a back door of the school.
âWe have video surveillance, but now this is a lesson, we need metal detectors too,â he said. "It is a huge tragedy ⊠something like this (happening) in Belgrade. Such a tragedy at an elementary school.â
Four students and a teacher were sent to University hospital, according to the hospitalâs director, who said one child and the teacher were in serious condition.
Milan Milosevic, who said his daughter was in a history class when the shooting took place, told N1 television that he rushed to the school when he heard what had happened. He received a call from his daughter who had gotten out of the building and was unharmed.
âHe (the shooter) fired first at the teacher and then the children who ducked under the desks,â Milosevic said his daughter told him.
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